THIS is what post-season baseball is all about. Bottom of the eighth, runners on second and third, Mets trailing by a run. Braves trying to put the series away. Mets trying to live for another day.
Classic power relief pitcher vs. pure line-drive hitter. John Rocker vs. John Olerud, the anti-Rocker.
They don”t mind John Olerud at all in Atlanta.He has never called the fans there stupid, has never said he hated the Braves. Has never really said nothing at all.
Olerud reads the things Rocker says. He shrugs. “”Everybody has their opinion,”” he says. “”it”s fine.””
Olerud rides to Shea Stadium on a subway. Nobody recognizes him. He hits .300, nobody notices him. He is so placid, he even seems to like Bobby Valentine. He is a flat line on an EKG of a city always having a heart attack.
Olerud should be a Brave. Rocker should be the Met. They must have been switched at birth, and here was fate bringing them together and cruel fate at that. Olerud was 0-for-9 lifetime against Rocker with five strikeouts.
The batter hit a bouncer that he did not personally guarantee, off Ozzie Guillen”s glove that he had never insulted, and saved the day. It was an unassuming hit by an unassuming guy that kept alive the Mets in an NLCS that a lot of people assumed was over after Brian Jordan and Ryan Klesko hit consecutive home runs in the top of the eighth to put Atlanta up, 2-1.
“”It was a fastball down and away,”” said Olerud. “”And I hit it over the of it a little bit., When I saw it going up the middle, I didn”t know if it was going to go through or not.
“”But I was definitely rooting for it. I”ll tell you that.””
John Olerud roots for balls by gentling nodding his head. Stands at first base like he”s standing under a lamp post under a street corner.
He once survived a brain aneurysm. Must have gotten a two-for-one deal on a lobotomy. Last night he hit a sixth-inning homer of John Smoltz and drove in all three runs. We think he smiled.
“”John”s been a big hitter all his career,”” said Valentine. “”He”s a talented guy and goes unnoticed. I know he hit a grand slam to get us a win here in the last series [against Atlanta]. We played the Braves he got two hits today.””
“”He obviously is very tough. This is a guy who had a brain aneurysm. He became one of the great hitters at the major league level without ever playing a day in the minor leagues. He lives in New York City and goes out and plays every day that we have a baseball game. It”s pretty tough.””
Especially for the manager who lose eight of nine down the stretch after losing five the end the season before, which is something that might have come up in the panel discussion Valentine told the magazine the other managers would not dare share with him.
Olerud would not serve as the moderator. If he owned an ice-cream shop, he would serve only vanilla. The pizza place that he used to call and say he was on his way home from a Mets game they had no idea he was playing in, knew to get a plain one ready.
If the relief pitcher he faced last night was a pizza, he would be green peppers and anchovies. With a little arsenic sprinkled on by the fans.
“”Yeah, he”s real tough,”” said Olerud. “”He”s got a great fastball, good slider, good breaking pitch. Both of them he can throw for strikes, so you really can”t rule out one particular pitch an so that makes it tough.
“”I”m up there concentrating on getting a good pitch to hit and trying to have a good at-bat. That”s what I”m up there thinking.””
“”I”ve tried a bunch of different approaches off him and haven”t had a whole lot of success.””
Nobody on the Mets had had any success of John Rocker, Punk Rocker, Off His Rocker when he comes to New York.
The series looked over. It was a good thing a guy who doesn”t always seem to know what day it is, let along what game he was in was up.
The accidental tourist knows what city he is in, though.
“”I take the subway occasionally,”” he said. “”I drive most of the time. I stop for pizza every once in a while. I guess that makes me a New Yorker.””
After winning a game with a hit off Rocker, today that makes him mayor.